Magnetics Business & Technology - November/December 2023 - 30

VISIONS
Hall-Effect Thrusters from Busek to Propel Artemis Gateway
Hall thrusters generate thrust by creating and accelerating
ionized gas via an electric field. Confined within a finely shaped
magnetic field, electrons gyrorotate within the channel until
they ionize a neutral atom. The ionized plasma is then accelerated
by the electric field to exhaust velocities of greater than
25,000 m/s.
Four Hall-Effect thrusters from Busek will propel the Artemis Gateway
in NASA lunar mission
As space missions probe deeper and last longer, electrified
propulsion systems powered by Hall-Effect thrusters are proving
their mettle. One company leading the way is Busek, a
pioneer in Hall-Effect technology for aerospace whose thrusters
will be aboard NASA Artemis missions seeking the return
of humans to the moon.
Four BHT-6000 thrusters from Busek will be part of the Power
and Propulsion Element (PPE) in NASA's Artemis program.
The PPE is a high-power, 60-kilowatt solar electric propulsion
spacecraft built by Maxar Technologies and operated by
NASA. It will provide power, high-rate communications, attitude
control, and orbital transfer capabilities for the Lunar Gateway
and will be the first U.S. electric propulsion system on a
human-rated mission.
The 2-6kW thruster is the culmination of decades of Hall
thruster research and development expertise at the company,
based in Natick, Massachusetts. It is optimized for high power
all-electric orbit raising, station-keeping and de-orbit needs.
Applications include the Lunar Gateway, GEO communications
spacecraft and solar electric space tugs.
With no moving mechanical parts and a simple electrical layout,
Hall thrusters are extremely reliable. The high specific impulse
of Hall thrusters leverages the nonlinear nature of the rocket
equation. Every additional second of specific impulse leads to an
exponential improvement in the spacecraft mass ratio.
The Gateway, a vital component of NASA's Artemis program, will
serve as a multi-purpose outpost orbiting the Moon that provides
essential support for long-term human return to the lunar surface
and serves as a staging point for deep space exploration. NASA is
working with commercial and international partners to establish
the Gateway.
BHT-6000 Hall-Effect thruster from Busek features a highly efficient
center-mounted cathode design and a unique magnetic field design.
Its total efficiency, a measure of how well a thruster balances thrust,
power consumption, and specific impulse, exceeds 64% at nominal
operating conditions.
With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first
person of color on the Moon using innovative technologies to
explore more of the lunar surface than ever before, and as part
of a collaboration with commercial and international partners
to establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then,
NASA plans to use what it learns on and around the Moon to
take the next giant leap -- sending the first astronauts to Mars.
For more info, see www.busek.com and www.nasa.gov.
30 Magnetics Business & Technology * November/December 2023
www.MagneticsMag.com
http://www.busek.com http://www.nasa.gov http://www.MagneticsMag.com
Magnetics Business & Technology - November/December 2023

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